This invention relates to wheeled vehicle safety during nighttime or low-lighting conditions, and in particular to an ultraviolet light emitting structure for exciting a phosphorescent component of a wheel structure in order for the wheel to emit visible light.
Wheeled vehicles are often under-equipped with side lighting structures. Side lighting can be very important to the safety of vehicle operators at nighttime, particularly in the case of bicycles, bicycle trailers, mopeds, motorcycles, scooters, jogging strollers, baby strollers, wheelchairs, and other vehicles which typically do not offer the powerful lighting systems available to automobiles.
Various fixed point lighting systems are available to address this problem, but with a series of drawbacks. Many systems offer a very small light producing area that is anywhere from several millimeters to only a couple of inches in area, and are therefore simply inadequate in drawing the attention of motorists. In the case of safety structures mounted onto a rotating wheel, such as tireflys and reflectors, an optical illusion called “cycloid movement” is created by the motion of the product as it turns, and the vehicle may appear to have a velocity and course that is deceptive with respect to its actual movement. As such, there remains a need for alternative safety lighting approaches, advantageously alternative approaches that optionally address one or more of the drawbacks of the prior art.